SQL Server is the New Hunting Ground in the Cloud
You can now run Microsoft SQL Server on Google Cloud Platform. All the major cloud providers support SQL Server, either with an IAAS or PAAS model, but the offerings have very different feature sets. Providing an attractive option for migrating SQL Server to the cloud seems to be a new focus for Google, Amazon and Microsoft.
Uber Engineering Moving from Postgres to MySQL
In a recent blog post, Uber detailed why they have chosen to replace PostgreSQL with MySQL. In this article we present a high level overview of the problems they faced, how MySQL fares against them and some of the best rebuttals against the case presented by Uber.
AWS Adds Native SQL Server Backups to Database-as-a-Service
AWS released an update to its Relational Database Service (RDS) that allows users to take advantage of native SQL Server backup and restore functionality. AWS beat Microsoft Azure to market with this capability which simplifies database migration and disaster recovery scenarios.
Query Optimizer Improvements in SQL Server 2016
While the last two versions of SQL Server focused on improving performance by offering new features, SQL Server 2016 looks inwards towards improving existing functionality.
SQL Server 2016 Developer Edition is Free
In conjunction with the release of SQL Server 2016, Microsoft has announced that the Developer Edition of SQL Server will be free.
NOLOCK is Broken in SQL Server 2014 SP1
The NOLOCK directive was broken in Cumulative Update #6 for SQL Server 2014 SP1. As a result, databases that relied on that directive may experience unexpected blocking and/or deadlocks.
SQL Server 2005 is No Longer Receiving Security Updates
SQL Server 2005 has now officially hit its end of life. This means that it will no longer receive security updates and new vulnerabilities that are discovered will go unfixed. Yet a recent survey commissioned by Microsoft showed that 46% of companies using SQL Server had at least one production machine running SQL Server 2005.
SQL Server's Servicing Rules Have Changed
Microsoft has dramatically changed the support policy for SQL Server. In the past, the policy was essentially "wait for a service pack unless you have a problem". Now they want developers to proactively Cumulative Updates.
SQL Server Now Offers NoSQL Style Memory-Optimized Tables
SQL Server 2016 is removing a lot of the limitations on memory-optimized tables including the inability to work with the large documents favored by NoSQL style designs.
AWS Launches Relational Database Migration Service
After a brief beta period that saw customers migrate more than 1,000 on-premises databases to the cloud, AWS formally released their Database Migration Service. This on-demand cloud service supports live migration scenarios, and customers who wish to switch their database platform as part of the migration can do so, thanks to a free schema conversion tool.
Microsoft SQL Server to Land on Linux
Microsoft’s executive vice president of the cloud and enterprise group Scott Guthrie announced SQL Server is coming to Linux, thus once more confirming Microsoft’s new course on open source software. SQL Server will be generally available on Linux sometime mid 2017, with a private preview being available now.
R for SQL Server 2016
SQL Server is add support for the statistical programming language R.
How Database Administration Fits into DevOps
InfoQ interviewed Dan North about the activities that are performed by database administrators and how they are related to those done by developers and by operations, how database administration is usually organized, how the database fits into DevOps or Continuous Delivery, and what he expects that the future will bring for database administration when organizations adopt DevOps.
SQLite 3.9 Supports JSON, Indexes on Expressions and More
Recently released SQLite 3.9 provides a number of new features and enhancements, including support for JSON encoding/decoding, full text search version 5, indexes on expressions, eponymous virtual tables and more.
SQL Server 2016: Identify Regressions with Query Store
SQL Server 2016 offers a new tool for performance tuning called Query Store. This holds metrics that let you quickly see when an execution plan change has negatively impacted the database.
